Many lip balms are commercially available in a stick form. Conventional stick lip balms typically contain a large amount of wax, e.g. amounts of conventional waxes in excess of 20% wt/wt of the composition. Waxes are used in the composition to give the composition sufficient structure to maintain a stick form under shipping and normal use conditions. Petroleum derived waxes such as ozokerite, paraffin, and microcrystalline petroleum based waxes are commonly used as they provide a robust stick structure and are relatively inexpensive materials.
As lips are the area of application, many users prefer the use of a “natural” product and consider petroleum-derived waxes to be synthetic products. Accordingly, use of “natural” waxes such as beeswax or plant derived waxes such as candelilla or carnauba have in some instances been used instead of or as a partial replacement for petroleum wax. While use of only botanically derived candelilla or carnauba wax may appeal to consumers, the use of only those two waxes either separately or in combination may lead to shrinkage problems when a lip balm stick is formed which in some instances may yield a stick with deformed portions.
Not only does the wax contribute significantly to the structure of the stick but also it provides the benefit of forming a protective layer when applied to the lips. Conventional stick lip balms formed using the conventional petroleum derived base waxes discussed above, while having protective properties, may not replenish natural lip lipids as well as naturally derived lipids and thus may not maintain natural moisture balance and prevent drying, chapping and cracking of lips.
Natural moisturizing lip balm products are available commercially, but typical commercially available moisturizing products with significant amounts of moisturizing ingredients are too soft to form a stick that can withstand storage, shipment and/or application to the lips without significant distortion of shape. Thus, natural moisturizing lip balm compositions are usually sold in tubes or pots and application is accomplished at least in part by the user's fingers. Thus application is messy, and particularly inconvenient if hand-washing facilities are not immediately available.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a natural stick lip balm product with efficacious amounts of natural moisturizer.